Plan ahead!  
Choosing styles, materials, and design configurations can be an arduous task. Careful consideration early on of available options and timely decision making will help ensure a smooth flowing process, avoid delays, costly changes and mistakes. There are publications galore with endless examples of the many combinations of styles, materials and design configurations. After developing a collection of favorite pages of interest in a file folder,  you'll discover your tendencies toward particular likes and dislikes. That coupled with Mountaindale Woodworking's years of experience and resources will help you zero in on designing and receiving exactly what it is you want. We want to help clients invest  wisely too. We are well versed in the cost differences involved in this decision making process.

Room layout
Decisions should be made early on regarding all appliances, office equipment,  entertainment center components, as well as counter materials. These items along with existing and proposed openings for doors and windows must be committed to a rooms layout.  This allows cabinetry to be configured appropriately to component dimensions and to the remaining areas. We use state of the art solid modeling CAD (Computer Aided Design) software which, along with pricing and manufacturing information for Mountaindale Woodworking, provides clients with dimensioned plan,  elevation  and perspective views, giving exact representations and a proposal summary that gives further definition to a project. These reviews help eliminate any misunderstandings. These four highlighted examples were used with the first portfolio project. (Please excuse some loss of resolution.)

Cabinet configurations
Personal preferences dictate much of this. The typical generic base cabinet is a door under one drawer with one adjustable shelf. All of Mountaindale Woodworkings shelves and roll-outs are adjustable. When room allows, split doors under a drawer offer better access for larger things, with adjustable Roll-out shelves providing even more convenient storage access, especially on the bottom. Full height base doors are used on Lazy Susans which make the best use of corner areas, some Tray cabinets, and in situations where a "cleaner look" is desired. Drawer stacks are usually three drawer or four drawer, the three drawer stacks allowing the paneled front style as an option. Exposed cabinet ends can be paneled,  slab, or a variety of end assemblies, such as shelved ends, clipped, and Fluted pilasters can be used. Changing heights and depths, especially on upper cabinets, can sometimes dramatically enhance your design. Moldings can be clean and simple, or more elaborate Crown assemblies and Light rails can be incorporated into a design.

Door and Drawer Front styles
Whether you prefer a country look, traditional, contemporary or European, there are only two basic door and drawer front styles: Flat Slab, or Frame and Panel. The frames use either a mitred mold construction or the more typical  cope and pattern construction. Their panels are usually a flat inset panel design or a "raised" panel design. From there, the options tend to become more subtle, although different applied moldings and mitred frame patterns in addition to standard edge treatments on door and drawer fronts can further enhance any style offering very distinct looks that can set your cabinetry apart from all the rest.  

Materials and Hardware
Select exterior grade species are typically from the softest to hardest,  Alder, Cherry, Black Walnut, Red Oak, Hickory and Maple. Birch and Alder are used for our paint grade projects, and  RTF (Rigid ThermoFoil) for similar applications. These thermo foils are primarily used on exterior contoured surfaces such as doors and moldings, not interiors, and are nearly as durable as plastic laminates. We encourage clients to choose a species they like in a natural finish, from the very light Maple to the rich dark look of Black Walnut.  Besides the cost savings of a clear natural finish, maintenance and repairs or later additions are more easily handled. Light stains can offer similar advantages. All prefinished cabinetry is top coated with a  "water white" conversion varnish. This product is much harder and much more resistant to water and yellowing than conventional lacquers. But, whether prefinished in our shop or often more preferably, finished in place, there are many finishing options available, from clear top coats to custom multi-step glazing processes. 

Mountaindale Woodworking interiors are of select grade 3/4"  stock whether white or maple grain thermo fused Melamine, or a lacquered Maple hardwood veneer. Thermo fused melamines rival plastic laminates, the most durable of interiors, but having less impact resistance.  While they look just as nice, we do not use cold rolled melamines, foils or vinyls as they approach the bottom of the durability list. Painted surfaces are the least durable and should be avoided for interiors when possible.

Mountaindale Woodworking  uses both Blum and Grass for all functional hardware applications. They are the leading manufacturers specializing in concealed hinges and drawer runner systems. You will not experience sagging doors or sloppy drawer action and all are backed by lifetime warranties assuring continued satisfaction for years to come. All hinges have 6-way adjustments to insure continued exacting reveals between fronts. We offer two drawer systems. With the  Grass Zargen system, the integrated drawer slide functions as the drawer side maximizing space usage. Fully adjustable, these are one of the strongest, trouble free drawers to be had. Also available are furniture grade solid Maple dovetail drawer boxes mounted on concealed full extension Blum Tandem drawer slides equipped the Blumotion system which provides the softest controlled closing action possible.